California Supreme Court Justice Joyce Kennard, who has forged a record of independence and unpredictability as the court's longest-serving justice, said Tuesday that she will retire April 5, the 25th anniversary of her appointment.

Her departure will give Gov. Jerry Brown a chance to make his second appointment to the seven-member court, joining Justice Goodwin Liu. Six of the seven current justices, including Kennard, were appointed by Republican governors.

After 28 years as a judge, "I think it's time to start a new chapter," Kennard, 72, said in an interview. "I've been wedded to my work, working seven days a week. ... I'd like to finally make time for my long-neglected friends."

Brown said in a statement, "The state and its people have been well served by Justice Kennard, and her independence and intellectual fortitude have left a lasting mark on the court."

Kennard was born in the East Indies and, as a child, was held along with her mother in a refugee camp in Java during World War II. They moved to the Netherlands after the war, and as a teenager Kennard had a leg amputated above the knee after developing a tumor.

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She came to the United States in 1961, found work as a secretary, and put herself through college and law school. After a stint in the state attorney general's office, she was named to a Municipal Court in Los Angeles by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1986. Three years later, he named her to the state's high court.

To the surprise of the conservative Deukmejian, Kennard charted a centrist course, frequently dissenting from the right-leaning majority.

In a lone dissent from a 1993 ruling upholding surrogate-motherhood contracts in California, Kennard chided the all-male majority and said a pregnant woman "is more than a mere container or breeding animal; she is a conscious agent of creation."

She was later part of moderate-to-liberal majorities that struck down a state law requiring parental consent for minors' abortions and California's ban on same-sex marriage. Kennard said Tuesday that her concurring opinion in the marriage case was one she will particularly remember.

She also wrote majority opinions upholding a state campaign finance disclosure law and allowing the victim of a rape by a police officer to sue the city.